ne 
the Mages vibuns baal y 
one Me pi hi IMEORITYy Magen 
UBO ANTISI : 
savo Apreaaine tn and the Leasowzs. 
i beieck pages “of ‘the’ Monthly Maga- 
“eine, ‘ever open’ td scientific and 
literary inquiry, haye seldom offered a 
greater treat to the lovers of true 
genius and poetry than, was contained 
in the last communication of Mr. James 
Luckcock,;on “Shenstone” ‘and the 
“Aueasomes.” 
I_had nearly given up all hope of a 
communication on the subject, satisfy- 
ing myself that the last-mentioned gen- 
tleman had either gone off’ the stage of 
life, left Birmingham, or had a disineli- 
nation. to pursue the inquiry. The re- 
verse being the case, the disappointment 
was a pleasurable one. 
The great literary Hercules, Johnson, 
visited Shenstone at the Leasowes, and 
wrote. him several letters, to one of 
which the latter alludes, when, writing 
to his friend Graves, he says, “Did J 
tell you I had a letter from Johnson, 
enclosing Vernon’s Parish-Clerk ?”’— 
i de previously commented on Ras- 
selas, then just published, by saying, 
“It has a few refined sentiments, thinly 
scattered; but is, upon the ‘whole, 
below Mr. Johnson;” who can won. 
der, then, that the great biographer, 
reading remarks like these in Shen- 
stone’s posthumous correspondence, 
should be a little soured, and did not 
forget him when writing his life? Who 
once offended him never escaped his 
censure; and, I think, Gray himself is 
treated. with undeserved severity. 
To avoid areference to the bottom 
a the page, permit me to ask here, 
Who was Vernon?—what were the 
erits of his “ Parish-Clerk ?”—who 
published it? &c. Perhaps Mr. Luck- 
cock, or some of the correspondents of 
the, “Monthly. Magazine, may furnish 
same.interesting particulars of the life 
of the man, whose book is at least very 
scarce, as I have in vain sought for it 
fot a considerable period. 
ae & am. led to believe that Shenstone 
did not know Gray personally, only as 
a, literary character, through their nm- 
tual friend Dodsley.. He once mentions 
him in his. Essays, and, I think, not 
disrespectfully. In attempting to esta- 
blish the position, , that “ effeminacy of 
anneal, im. ~ ae general run, is es- 
ia irresolutjon,” he 
known, intrepidity. of 
pe ‘whose. happiness 
oe to rou on a snuff-box <a 
ered invisible, which might, never- 
‘Shenstone and the’ Leasoties. 
(Aug. 
theless, ie fouid Sent pe ‘kof dirt, 
or wound ie le Ta. the eel 0 et 
stocking,” Mt Gag a 
we. say, then, 0 9 
ners very et fe afi a of a 
poetical vein, fraugh § blest 
and sublimest, ; ia a ie find 
remarkably well, stored with Pie amore 
masculine parts of learning.” 
That Shenstone rivalled ‘Gray. as Ws a 
poet, few will, attempt to deny; * ‘and 
that this rivalry produced all the spleen 
of Gray, is equally evident. ‘Great men 
are ever jealous of the nearest ; sap- 
proaches to their greatness. It is a 
sort of weakness that even great parts 
cannot exempt them from; and we 
need not offend the. liying, when we 
may select examples from ng. the 
dead, by instaneing the mapa ae the 
himself, Garrick, and others. . Gray 
could not have seen the above quota- 
tion, because the Essays did not meet 
the public eye till after. Shenstone’s 
death, Yet, in a letter to Dr. Wharton, 
in 1758, speaking of and preferring the 
four first volumes of Dodsley’s Miscel- 
lany to the two last, he says, tauntingly; 
“But, then, there is Mr. Shenstone, 
who trusts to nature and simple senti- 
ment—why does he do no better? He 
goes hopping along his own gravel-walks, 
and never deviates from the beaten 
paths, for fear of being lost.” 
The only existing embellishment that: 
I know of, and which is very scarce, is 
a view of that part of the Leasowes 
called ‘“Virgil’s Grove’’—the most. 
beautiful scene, according to Dodsley, 
of the whole. . Of this print Lhave a 
copy, tolerably well executed, in oil- 
Shenstone’ s portrait. is not uncommon ; 
but ‘a view of. the house, if sgiched, 
was never published. 
Shenstone’s ‘ Schoolmistress” is an 
excellent performance, and would hand 
his name down to. posterity, if. he had’ 
written nothing. beside; but his famé 
certainly rests on his Hlegies, Ballads’ 
and Odes... Of these, ‘‘ The African 
Slave,’ commencing at the fifth stanza. 
of the twentieth Elegy, is'a beautiful: 
appeal to humanity in fayour of that 
persecuted race, which amet fire. pity 
tra = 
* We should | eal that, eee 
ants 
